I started adoring fairytale books when I was still in grade school. During free hours, instead of chasing butterflies in the backyard or playing “nonsense jackstone” with my naughty classmates, I choose to remain in my chair and flipped on books. It somehow gave satisfaction to my self, having those myths of Goldilocks and Princess Jasmine conquering odds in their colorful journeys excites my mind to dream things beyond imaginations.
The magic of innocence allowed my mind to welcome the art of daydreaming. I was grown tired listening to the nagging reality of misery in our environment that I thought taking extraordinary journey to a fairyland is a great escape from everyday clutters of life. Then I lived up to believe of embracing the wonders of day dreaming as the true essence of youth. Discovering the myths of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White triggered my innocent mind that dreaming Prince Charming is part of every woman's exciting journey.
I brought up in a very strict Catholic environment where simplicity and refinement are the key rules; talking sex is a taboo and taking boyfriends while still in school was prohibited. I had a very slim understanding about how the world works on; in fact I was slightly different from my contemporary kids that everybody in the neighborhood thought I was a bit of a queer girl. I despised parties and social gatherings. I called disco and bar houses as nastiest places on earth and dismissed modern lifestyle as simply outrageous.
At the age of 14 I started writing manuscripts for our school plays, I remember writing the screenplay of “Indiana Jones and the last crusade” in Filipino version just to meet the deadline of our Teacher's day presentation. It was my first taste of freedom to write a movie inspired theme (10 years later I successfully wrote the full screenplay of Titanic, after watching the box office hit movie for 12 times, I had memorized the lines and the scenes that I thought it would be better to scribble the whole thing in my own style-sorry James Cameron.LOL!), the excellent feedbacks I received further fueled my energy to maximize my potential in writing and of course, day dreaming. When you write a plot, you must expand your imaginations, exploring various scenes to come up with a sensible script. The passion gave me even more room to dream Prince Charming.
I am quite aware how a typical romance story run and the basic formula, though varies; restyled, refashioned by different writers to suit well to the public, has always an ending that summed up a fairy tale: “A dashing boy meets an ordinary girl..and they lived happily ever after”.
Wishful Thinking
Life in the province offers no room for other pleasure except imaginations. My father, who served the Catholic Church all his life as a Eucharistic minister (he made it a lifetime career even more when he retired from government service in 1995), staunchly refused to have a TV set in our house until I was 20 years old. Sounds frivolous but he would thunder in fury every time we insisted to buy one, because in his own words “Television is not suited for kids”. Later in life, I remember my father's ringing words when I read the biography of Princess Diana authored by celebrated writer Andrew Morton when the latter quoted Prince Charles:“too much television is bad, because it robs children's natural imaginativeness”. The future King of England is also adamant about television soap operas where he pronounced it as dull-witted shows ever produced in World television history. It was only then that I appreciated my father's effort to rear us in a very safe and sensible environment.
With much nothing to do during weekends, I would routinely explored the wooden cabinet of my father where he has numerous collection of books, magazines and other reading materials, as a Eucharistic minister, he has also a wide array of religious stuff including Bibles, Catholic digests, Daily Sunday guide among others. My favorite magazine during those years was The Columbian, a Catholic magazine supplement based in New York City circulated every month to the Knight of Columbus members world wide.My father and my uncle (my father's only brother) are both members of Knight of Columbus-an international fraternity of the Roman Catholic.
If I would not reading magazines and books, I would spend my weekend at the seashore facing the mighty Pacific Ocean, writing stories inspired by the bellowing of the waves and the chirping of the birds. One of my excitements then was for the afternoon to come and watch the magnificent sunset slowly fading the horizon creating a dramatic exit. I often marvelled of life beyond the sea, the mountains and the placid lakes. I was like a drifter that towards the end of the day I feel exhausted. The striking beam of summer sunshine and the glimmering shadows of moonlight at night inspired my views that life offers an impressive hope for brighter days beyond adversities.
